New Ink Makes Way for Bendable Tablets

Roll up your iPad and stash it in your pocket.

In an era of increased use of interactive touchscreen devices, consumers have grown accustomed to working with flat, rigid glass-based displays. A research effort based at Northwestern University aims to change this format, however, with a bendable display that behaves similarly to printed paper.

Materials science professor Mark Hersam and his team of researchers at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a process to print flexible layers of graphene that are highly conductive. In fact, the novel ink is 250 times more conductive than previous graphene-based technologies—a major breakthrough considering that carbon-based materials such as graphene tend to exfoliate, requiring oxidizing solutions or solvents that decrease conductivity.

The new approach utilizes ethanol and ethyl cellulose to create a high-quality powder of graphene flakes used to create the ink. Based on the success of their research, the scientists anticipate the production of low-cost, high-resolution electronic newspapers or tablets that can be rolled up and stashed in a pocket.

“Graphene has a unique combination of properties that is ideal for next-generation electronics, including high electrical conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and chemical stability,” said professor Hersam in a university press release. “By formulating an inkjet-printable ink based on graphene, we now have an inexpensive and scalable path for exploiting these properties in real-world technologies.”

Blaine Brownell, AIA, is a regularly featured columnist whose stories appear on this website each week. His views and conclusions are not necessarily those of ARCHITECT magazine nor of the American Institute of Architects.